Cary Ginell has been writing theater reviews in Ventura County since 1996. He joined the staff of the Ventura County Acorn in 2007 and since then, has written over 500 reviews. In 2013, he started his own theater arts blog, VC On Stage (www.vconstage.com), which includes reviews of musicals and plays from Calabasas to Ojai. From 2005 to 2010, Cary was Broadway project manager for Alfred Publishing, producing all of the publisher's piano/vocal songbooks. He is the author of 9 books on music, including "Broadway Musicals: Show By Show," published by Applause Books.
In the opening scene of the Rubicon Theatre Company's production of My Fair Lady, buskers in London's Covent Garden, where Cockney Eliza Doolittle works as a flower girl, are rewarded with tuppence given to them by members of the audience.
When you walk into the plain storefront that serves as the home for The Flying H Group Theatre Company, you have to do a double-take to make sure you're in the right place.
As the topic of guns in society becomes more and more prominent during the upcoming election season, Stephen Sondheim's controversial 1990 Off-Broadway and off-beat musical Assassins has increased in its relevancy.
In Scene Two of Lynn Riggs' play, Green Grow the Lilacs, farm girl Laurey Williams speaks passionately to her Aunt Eller about the ranch where she grew up:
Although I am not as familiar with the plays of Anton Chekhov as some, Christopher Durang's play, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike, doesn't require a pop quiz of Chekhovian references in order for one to enjoy the show.
In their 1962 Cold War song, 'The John Birch Society,' the Chad Mitchell Trio sings, 'You cannot trust your neighbor or even next of kin / If Mommy is a Commie then you gotta turn her in.